Changing the World Through Observation

​These are certainly challenging times we are living in. How do we even start to address all of the mounting issues we are now facing? Observation can go a long way to begin the process. When I was in college I studied Biology and Chemistry and observation was a key component of my work. We mostly utilized Newtonian science; in Biology courses we dissected plants and animals or categorized living things according to their genus and species, and in Chemistry elements and compounds were categorized as well as types of reactions. I didn’t know it then but we were trained to examine the parts and construct the whole as if we were building a structure out of building blocks. This observation technique was taught throughout my high school and college experience and is still taught in many schools throughout our educational system. I want to clarify that the teachers I had during these years inspired me to learn and observe and I still value these skills. Years later, I was introduced to Goethean science where holistic observation is utilized. Instead of looking at the parts and building the whole we are asked to look at the whole, and then through further observation, move to the parts. Goethe is well known for his literary endeavors; however he is often overlooked for his scientific gifts. Perhaps these gifts have been undervalued because material gains can easily be made through systematic logical thinking. Goethe relied on intuition as he developed his observational skills, and intuition is abstract and less defined compared to logic. It was through an imaginative and intuitive lens that Goethe viewed the natural world. As Einstein once said, “Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” It is questionable if Einstein made this further quote; “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift”. However, whoever made the quote sums up this entire article in a nutshell. At first I thought this new way of ‘seeing’ was a simple concept, after all I thought, it’s only the reverse of Newtonian science. Initially I would choose which observational technique I would use, Newtonian or Goethean, but this was not always the case. During my formative years I was trained well and my deeply embedded Newtonian habits were, and still are, hard to break. As I listen to the news I have observed that the ‘parts to whole’ way of ‘seeing’ the global issues, Newtonian science, is alive and well. The news and commentary indicate ways to fix poverty, to combat climate change, or how to stimulate the economy, but rarely do we hear anything about what is the common denominator or the underlying basis for all of the global challenges. Can we take all of the individual manifestations and boil them down to a holistic basic concept (Goethian science)? This holistic question leads us to the Newtonian way of observation of the parts to determine what they all have in common. What I have noticed is that the amount of resources needed to mitigate each individual global challenge is not only increasing, but the increase is accelerating. If this is a true observation and resources are limited, how do we address the diminishing reserves? Throughout the website throughput has been introduced in various articles. It is a complex concept that has been described as including all of the cumulative resources needed to perpetuate the system, including the resources needed to mine, refine, ship, process, dispose, defend, etc. According to Wikipedia throughput is the maximum rate of production or maximum rate at which something can be processed. In this context efficiency is considered to be positive because the more efficient the system the greater the amount of production can be obtained. Environmental throughput reverses the positive effects of efficiency in that the more efficient the system becomes (usually through technology) the faster we can diminish our resource reserves. There are those who have, through scientific and mathematical logic, concluded that if we continue to use a limited resource reserve at an accelerating pace there will be a day of reckoning. There are also those, that through unexplainable intuition, that came to the same conclusion. Goethe: “There is no trifling with nature; it is always true, grave and severe; it is always in the light, and the faults and errors fall to our share. It defies incompetency, but reveals its secrets to the competent, the truthful and the pure.”

Since much of our developed culture, the portion most dependent on the constant flow of resources, utilizes the logical’ parts to the whole’ method to solve problems, it might be helpful to take a look at the more imaginative and intuitive side. Intuitive and imaginative forces flow from the right side of the brain whereas logical thinking flows from the left. It is early childhood play that stimulates the right side of the brain and increases imaginative and intuitive thinking. Could it be that just observing nature we can realize how important early childhood play can be when we see young kittens, puppies, and cubs all playing? Our logic would counter this intuitive knowledge by considering how important it is to learn how to hunt and create a shelter at an early age to survive instead of wasting time on play. Could it be that this early play stimulates the very forces needed for survival? To remain competitive we are asking our children at a younger and younger age to become more logical instead of strengthening our intuitive and imaginative forces. As we observe global tensions rising, the environment degrading, and poverty increasing, our intuition tells us that something is wrong. At an early age we are told that imagination and intuition are not real, after all we’ve all heard ‘that is only make believe’. Intuition and imagination are like muscles and the more they are used the stronger they become. Conversely, if they are not used, they atrophy. If we can work on developing these forces we may be able to observe the world as Goethe did, a world more connected as a whole and less fragmented. Goethe: “In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.” It may be time to consider investigating how we think and observe in solving our challenges instead of only thinking about logical solutions.